On Saturday 13th November Greenwich Dance‘s 13 – 18 year old dance group, NrgDANCE, danced hip-hop, with choreography inspired by Roman artefacts seen at the Museum of London by the students. My 13 year old son dances with NrgDANCE.

Fashion students from Greenwich Community College put on a cat walk show modeling their designs based on Roman costumes and Greenwich Theatre‘s Young People’s Theatre acted a short play, together they put on a fantastic evening.

The venue was Greenwich Heritage Centre and the project is Culture Shock: Roman Greenwich, part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad project, Stories of the World: London.

Four dancers move at varying speeds following a circular path. The central figure walks, the outer performer is running, changing direction they make comments to each other as they run again, increasing the speed until you in the audience start to feel caught up in it and dizzy. This new dance, A Series of Appointments choreographed by Siobhan Davies, was performed in the beautiful Roof Studio of Siobhan Davies Dance Studios. Later a film is shown of the dance shot from above and projected onto the studio floor, highlighting the patterns created by the dancers movement.

The dancers stop, seeming to take time out, sit on two benches facing each other, continuing with comments, the words are from playwright E.V. Crowe, they are performing Live Feed.

The dancers, directed by composer Matteo Fargion, stand in a line in front of music stands and perform Songbook, creating a song out of simple gestures and (often comical) noise.

Gill Clarke, known to many for her strong dance technique classes (she taught and inspired me years ago) performed in ceramicist Claire Twomey’s installation. The room was filled with unfired ceramic pots, on tables and on the floor. Ceremoniously water was poured into one pot at a time. The water collapsed the unfired pot and water flowed out on to the floor.

On the ground floor Sam Collins‘s The Conversation Revolved showing the dinner party scene from the Hitchcock film, The Suspicion fractured by mirrors and repeated in a circular formation. Really clever.

I went on the last day, I wish I’d gone on the first so I could have returned, the whole afternoon was fascinating and inspirational. I have drawn the company during rehearsals for In Plain Clothes in 2006 and Two Quartets in 2007 and The Collection during performance at Victoria Miro Gallery in 2009.

My great friend and fellow artist Rachel Gadsden has been the artist at the centre of the national project Rethink Parliament run by Parliamentary Outreach in partnership with Rethink and Disability Arts Online. The programme engaged people with severe mental illness with the work and relevance of Parliament. Launched in November 2009 by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Rt Hon John Bercow MP, 16 art workshops around the country followed, led by Rachel.

The participants created self-portraits in an enjoyable non-judgmental environment. At the closing ceremony on 8 November, held in the House of Lords, Rt Hon John Bercow MP highlighted how crucial it is that politicians make themselves more accessible and relevant to people with experience of mental illness. One of the participants gave a very moving account about how much the project and Rachel had touched his life.

As the other guests filtered out under the shadow of Big Ben, I took a left turn into a corridor and went in search of the House of Commons, to watch and draw a debate. Above is the resulting sketch.

Last night over 100 of us at Second Floor Studios opened our studios to the public. I had a constant stream of visitors in my studio, many commented on the wealth of creativity and talent they had encountered. Mine is Studio 17, Unit 0, by the river. We open again on the weekend from 11 – 6 on Saturday and 11 – 6 on Sunday. Click on Second Floor Studios for travel directions and more information. Here are some shots of the work I’m showing, the majority of the work shown is for sale.

Two men in plain clothes dance for an hour on a big empty stage, sometimes shadowing each other, sometimes alone, sometimes in perfect unison.

It’s as if they are reading each others minds and responding without the need of sight. They rarely touch, rarely acknowledge one another with even a glance, but their muscular bodies seem to hold an empathy with each other.

A year ago I drew Emanuel Gat with Candoco Dance Company rehearsing In Translation. This lyrical, beautiful dance was recently performed at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank as part of Candoco’s touring show Rendition’s. He works the dancers hard, creating an energizing supportive space, with clear intentions.

Winter Variations is meticulous in detail, the dancers never falter. Throughout the dance the relationship and mood shifts between playful, mournful, sensual ending with isolation. Music ranges from Schubert, to The Beetles urban “Day in the Life” moving on their knees; a song by Egyptian Riad al Sunbati to Gustav Mahler’s Song of the Earth, to which the men dance in tactile sensual unison, only to agonizingly separate.

Next week I will open my studio to the public as part of Second Floor Studios Open Studio Event. My studio is 17, unit 0, (the building overlooking the river). I will show sculpture, framed and unframed drawings, sketch books, etchings and paintings. All work is for sale or I can work to commission. See my website to view some of the work.

The dialogue between visual art and dance is of primary concern in my practice as an artist, so the new exhibition at the Hayward Gallery, exploring the interaction between art and dance from the 1950’s to the present is of particular interest. Spectators are encouraged to interact with the exhibits, many of which have been created specifically to be used in dance performances, affecting the movement and outcome of the dance.

Every day dancers (alumni of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance) are in the gallery performing and discussing work. They are very knowledgeable about the dances and will readily talk to you, by interacting with them you will be part of a Performance Event, Production created by Xavier Le Roy and Marten Spangberg.

American, Mike Kelly, has created a theatrical space, laying out objects for the public to interact with in Adaption: Test Room Containing Multiple Stimuli Known to Elicit Curiosity and Manipulatory Responses the dancers perform with the props in this space.

On Saturdays between 12 and 4 the Yvonne Rainer dance, Trio A is performed in the gallery. The complex pedestrian movements are danced in a fluid continuous stream, no music. If you read my blog on 21st October you may remember I drew two of the dancers performing Trio A on the pavement outside Cafe Luc as part of the Secret Frieze After Party. Impromptu performances of Huddle, choreographed by Simone Forti based on improvisation and chance takes place throughout the gallery.

Trio A Huddle

The Fact of Matter is choreographed by William Forsythe

consisting of gymnastic

rings hanging from the ceiling for visitors to swing and step through exploring the limits and weight of the body, a test of physical and mental agility.

Hula-Hoops are laid out for everyone to use in Rooftop Routine. Ropes hang from the ceiling to sit or stand in.There are also screens with archived material to watch, and many more displays to interact with than I have mentioned.

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About Sally

I draw in response to activity, focussing on live performance. Dancers are my stimulus, I draw while they rehearse and perform, transcribing motion and stillness, balance and falling, solitude and chaos, into a series of marks on paper. The drawings are in the present, an immediate and direct reaction to the rhythmic movement.

The drawings inform the paintings, etchings and life size wire sculpture created in my studio while the memory of the movement is still strong.